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MST3K 420 - The Human Duplicators
The Movie Synopsis In 1965, an alien being (Richard Kiel) travels to Earth to carry out his leaders' "Galaxy Domination Program". Adopting the identity of "Dr. Kolos", he commandeers the aid of distinguished retired cybernetic physicist Professor Dornheimer (George Macready) and makes android duplicates of key scientists in the basement lab of Dornheimer's mansion, killing or imprisoning the originals. A government physicist, Dr. Munson (Walter Abel), who is actually an android, walks into a secure government facility to steal transistors for use as android components. In making his escape, he is undeterred by four bullets in the back. Later, his corpse is found at the bottom of a cliff; cause of death: electrocution, some time before the robbery. The National Intelligence Agency sends agent Glenn Martin (George Nader) to investigate. Martin links "android" with Dornheimer, whose house is near the site where Munson's body was discovered. He impersonates a magazine reporter and interviews the cyberneticist at his home. Unable to find out much, he breaks in at night and discovers the android operation before being caught, imprisoned and duplicated himself. The android Martin returns to NIA headquarters, arousing the suspicions of his secretary/colleague/love interest, Gail (Barbara Nichols). She begins to follow him. Meanwhile, Kolos develops feelings for Lisa (Dolores Faith), the Professor's blind, piano-playing niece. He deviates from his bosses' plan by refusing to have her duplicated according to standard procedure. The androids are revealed to have a design defect. They start defying Kolos and take him prisoner. They seize Lisa and prepare to duplicate her. Martin, in the basement, is furiously working to escape his cell. Information * In addition to MST3K, The Human Duplicators was also featured on the original incarnation of the TV series Elvira's Movie Macabre, as well as Elvira's home video series for Thriller Video. * The final film of Hugh Beaumont. * Actors Dolores Faith and Richard Kiel had previously appeared in The Phantom Planet, which later became Experiment #902. The Episode Host Segments Prologue: The Bots make suggestions to Joel about ways they could be improved. Gypsy wants a cab forward design, Crow wants more capacity to love, and Tom has a few suggestions for himself. Segment One (Invention Exchange): The Mads have the sillies because of their ridiculous invention, the William Conrad Fridge Alert. Joel demonstrates his awesome-looking beanie chopper, which unfortunately doesn't live up to expectations. Segment Two: Joel asked the Bots to make spaceships from ordinary household items. Gypsy's shows her resourcefulness, Tom's shows a lack of initiative, and Crow's shows his workmanship. Joel makes one too, and Crow is insulted. Segment Three: Tom Servo takes a cue from the movie and duplicates himself many times over. Things don't work out as planned when his duplicates refuse to do his bidding. Joel takes Tom away for a time-out when the duplicate Toms suddenly turn on a defenseless Crow. 's suburban spaceship.]] Segment Four: A grumpy "Hugh Beaumont" makes a return visit via the Hexfield Viewscreen. Segment Five: Crow and Tom come out of the robot closet after reading through "Robot Nation". Joel is not surprised. A letter is read and William Conrad actually shows up in Deep 13. Stinger: Two doppelgangers are laughing as they choke each other Other Notes Guest Stars *"Hugh Beaumont": Michael J. Nelson *''William Conrad'': Kevin Murphy Trivia * Gypsy's model in Host Segment Two includes a leg from a Kenner ''Star Wars'' Imperial AT-AT Walker toy from The Empire Strikes Back. The same toy was used to construct version 3 of Cambot. * This episode aired twelfth during Turkey Day '93. Running Jokes * References to Hugh Beaumont's role as Ward Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver. ** Crow:' '"The boys did what!? They duplicated "Lumpy?" ** Tom: "Yes June... I'm still at work...." * The bots snickering at Professor Dornheimer's name. * Joel and the bots constantly imitating Richard's Keil's line deliveries. * Joel and the bots also imitating Gail's nasally voice. * The occasional "blind joke" when Lisa sometimes appears. Obscure References * William Conrad Fridge Alert. William Conrad is a heavyset actor best known as the star of the TV series Cannon and Jake and the Fatman. * Aleani "Bambi" Hamilton? She's a wrestler! I know it! Joel is focusing on the name "Bambi" which was the stage name of female professional wrestler Selina Majors. The actress Aleani "Bambi" Hamilton herself was never a wrestler. * You rang? Oh wait... I'm NOT Ted Cassidy. Ted Cassidy was an equally tall actor to Richard Keil (at 6 ft 9 in.) who was best known for playing Lurch on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Addams_Family_(1964_TV_series) The Addams Family TV show]. Dr. Clayton Forrester used both actors' names to introduce Joel to the previous experiment [https://mst3k.fandom.com/wiki/MST3K_309_-_The_Amazing_Colossal_Man The Amazing Colossal Man]. * Marilyn, you've got another date! A reference to The Munsters. Marilyn was the blonde bombshell niece of Herman and Lily whom the family (including Marilyn herself) thought was odd-looking. * Oh, Dream Weaver! Oh, Dennis Weaver! "Dream Weaver" was a pop hit by Gary Wright in the mid-1970's. Dennis Weaver was an actor best known for the Steven Spielberg film Duel ''and the TV series ''McCloud. * The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox are calling. The Duchess and The Dirtwater Fox is a comedy western from 1976. * Oh, George Nader... he's untalented at any speed." '' ''Unsafe at Any Speed is a 1965 book written by Ralph Nader documenting automotive companies' reluctance to research or incorporate basic safety features and certain fatal design flaws in a number of popular specific car models. *''He must have read Getting To Yes...'' Getting to Yes was a best selling guide to business negotiation techniques. *''Calling Scott Tracy.'' The 1960s Dick Tracy cartoon would typically begin with a police dispatcher saying "Calling Dick Tracy..." It may also be a reference to Scott Tracy, a puppet character on the Gerry Anderson show Thunderbirds. * Kevin McHale, no! Kevin McHale was a professional basketball player who spent most of his career with the Boston Celtics. At 6'10" tall, he was almost as big as Richard Kiel. * Hey, it's the Maytag Repairman! The Maytag Repairman is the center of a long-running advertising campaign for Maytag appliances. The premise is that Maytag appliances were so well-made that the Repairman never receives service calls, and is therefore often bored and lonely. *''I'm here for the Mr. Drysdale audition.'' Mr. Drysdale was the often-exasperated banker played by Raymond Bailey on The Beverly Hillbillies. *''It's the office of Daniel Ellsberg's electrician.'' Daniel Ellsberg was a RAND corporation military analyst who leaked documents from the Pentagon (known as "The Pentagon Papers) in 1971 which proved that the Johnson administration's true estimates of the casualties, cost and length of the Vietnam war were several times greater than those released to the public. An effort was made to discredit Ellsberg, including an attempt to gain access to confidential records in his psychological therapist's office. *''Stop in the name of Tom Bodett!'' Tom Bodett was the spokesman for the Motel 6 motel chain. He repeated their slogan "We'll leave the light on for ya" in every commercial. *''Doctor Munson Honeydew!'' Dr. Bunson Honeydew was a scientist/inventor character on The Muppet Show. *''Knew your father, I did!'' Referencing the MST3K mainstay Mr. B. Natural (it's also the exact line spoken by Yoda to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back about Luke's father before Luke discovers his father was Darth Vader). *Mr. Martin, Glenn Martin. Crow: "...Glen Ross" A pun on the title of Glengarry Glen Ross, a 1984 drama by playwright David Mamet. *''I deny them my essence.'' A quote from Gen. Jack Ripper in Dr. Strangelove. General Ripper is paranoid delusional, believing Russians have tainted his "essence" with fluoridated water and that women wish to steal his essence from him. *"Uh... I gotta go to the bathroom and get a gun out of the toilet." A reference to the assassination plot in The Godfather. * "Heads we do, tails we don't." It's an Etruscan penny. '' Some Etruscan coins had blank backs, so the options when flipping one are literally "heads or nothing." (Had he spun such a coin as we see in the movie, the weight distribution would have almost guaranteed it would fall heads down.) *''Timothy, Timothy, Hungry as hell, no food to eat. Taken from the lyrics to "Timothy" by The Bouys. The song is about three men trapped in a collapsed mine who resort to cannibalism (though Joel would claim in Experiment #421 Monster A-Go Go that Timothy was a duck). *''Tube power? Must be McIntosh.'' Not a reference to the MacIntosh computers made by Apple, but to the tube-powered amplifiers by McIntosh Laboratories (which pre-dated the MacIntosh computer, which is why Apple had to add the "a" to avoid trademark problems). *Crow (quietly): It stinks. A line from the Season 3 experiment, Pod People. *''If you don't look good we don't look good.'' This is the old slogan of Vidal Sassoon hair care products. *''To think like a hu-man, to be the hu-man.'' Quoted from Experiment #107's movie Robot Monster. *''...and when I say there was no cannibalism in the Navy, I mean there was some.'' Quoted from a Monty Python's Flying Circus ''sketch in the episode "The War Against Pornography". *''Fresh from Kent State. In 1970 several members of the National Guard killed 4 unarmed civilians during an anti-war protest. *''It's the Android Sisters. It's true.'' A reference to the Andrews Sisters, a popular vocal jazz trio in the 30's and 40's, their most famous song was "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". *''"We serve fun at Shakey's!" "Also pizza!"'' The Shakey's Pizza chain was popular in the United States during the 1960s and '70s, but its restaurants are now found mainly in Southern California and Asia. Video releases * Released on DVD by Shout! Factory in November 2016 as part of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXVII, a 4-DVD set with Escape 2000, The Horror of Party Beach, and Invasion of the Neptune Men. **The DVD includes the MST Hour wraps for this episode. ***Unfortunately, Shout! forgot to include the introductory segment to the second part of the MST3K Hour for this episode. Category:MST3K Episodes Category:Season 4 Category:Mystery Science Theater Hour Episodes Category:Unrated movies Category:Episodes directed by Kevin Murphy